December 2nd, 2008

Patients with HIV and AIDS now live longer, healthier lives. 

Yet, according to a Courier-Times article, Bucks County health officials report that roughly thirty percent of those tested for the disease there never return to learn the results of their HIV/AIDS test.

Health officials cite the stereotypes and stigma surrounding the disease as reasons that many may not want to hear test results. 

Being unaware of infection puts both the patient and the general public at risk.  Infected patients who are unaware not only endanger their own health by not seeking treatment, but may infect others.

HIV Program coordinator Kim Thomas notes that Bucks County officials do attempt to track down patients who test positive but do not return for results.

Since 1980, 719 Bucks and 966 Montgomery County residents have contracted AIDS.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 1 million people in the United States are living with HIV/AIDS, with 56,000 more infected each year.  Of these, they estimate that 20 percent of those infected do not know it.

Since the first World AIDS Day 20 years ago, HIV and AIDS has gone from a death sentence to a chronic, managable condition with increased survival rates.  In an attempt to remove some of the stigma surrounding the disease, CDC officials and the medical community have pushed in recent years for doctors to offer HIV screening to all patients aged 13 to 64.  It is estimated that over 20, 000 patients are infected each year by those that are unaware they carry the disease.